File:The natural history of fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, or monocardian animals (1838) (14597357767).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof11838swai (find matches)
Title: The natural history of fishes, amphibians, & reptiles, or monocardian animals
Year: 1838 (1830s)
Authors: Swainson, William, 1789-1855 Finden, Edward Francis, 1791-1857, engraver Goode, G. Brown (George Brown), 1851-1896, former owner. DSI George, Philip, 19th cent.?, former owner. DSI George, Christopher Fripp, former owner. DSI
Subjects: Fishes Amphibians Reptiles
Publisher: London : Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans, and John Taylor
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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he length of twenty-five feet, and whichis a savage and destructive wanderer over the wholeocean. Its jaws are armed with innumerable cuttingteeth, acutely pointed at their tips, and generally den-tated on their margins, the base being very wide and * Mag. of N. Hist. No. xiii. p. 35— Differs only from Carcharias Cuv.by the teeth being of the same shape in the upper and lower jaw ; viz. thepoints directed towards the corner of the mouth, with a smooth edge, anda truncated protuberance, either smooth or indented, on the exterior sideof the base (5 sp.). t lb. p. 36. t The propriety of retaining the original name of a genus to the typicalgroup, has been so well advocated by others, that any further observationsof ours would be superfluous. 140 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. compressed. They all have an unequal tail, two dorsalfins, and one anal. In the pre-eminently typical section,or sub-genus, the tail is of ordinary length (Squaluselephas Le Sueur, fig. 14.) ; but in the next sub-genus,
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Alopias Raf., to which the Squalus obscurus of Le Sueurforms a passage, the upper division of the tail is exces-sively lengthened; a familiar example of which is seenin the fox-tailed, shark of Britain (Alopias vulpes Nob.).*Independent of this singular development of tail, Alo-pias is further distinguished by having the snout coni-cal, not, as in.Squalus, broad and depressed; the teethalso are less numerous, and are only in two or threerows. The sub-genus Cericteus of Rafinesque is anequally distinct, but a much more extraordinary, type,hitherto found only on the prolific shores of Sicily t: itis at once distinguished by having two horn-like osseousappendages on the head, resembling horns; while itsaffinity to Alopias is manifested by its oblique, unequal,but very long tail. All the foregoing types have ananal fin, and the two dorsal fins are soft; but in Dala-tias nocturnus of Rafinesque, which he distinctly assertshas no spiracle, the anal fin is wanting, and the twodorsal fins are

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